Host Kirk Nordenstrom welcomes Amy Lillard, Executive Director of Washington Filmworks and Washington State Film Commissioner, for a conversation about filmmaking, community, and the future of Washington’s creative industry. Amy shares her perspective on the next generation of storytellers, the unique energy of the 48 Hour Film Project, and why fostering community is just as important as competition.
In this episode, Kirk and Amy revisit their shared history — from Seattle’s post-production days at Modern Digital to the rise of the 48 Hour Film Project as a launchpad for new filmmakers. They discuss Amy’s long-standing support of the 48, the Fly Filmmaking Challenge at SIFF, the global energy of Filmapalooza, and the role of community spaces like Solo Bar in Seattle’s creative ecosystem.
The conversation also explores advocacy efforts like Film Day in Olympia, music video editing adventures (including Anthrax), and a few heartwarming stories about dogs, cats, tattoos, and Rush.
Highlights include:
Amy’s reflections on judging 48HFP Seattle
Why the 48 is an incubator for Washington filmmakers
Filmapalooza 2017 in Seattle and its global impact
Community, collaboration, and the role of arts spaces
Film advocacy, leadership, and creative resilience
[00:00:00]
[00:00:00] Kirk Nordenstrom: All right. Welcome to episode 11 of 48 Hour Heroes Origin Stories. I have a very special guest with me here today, Amy Lillard, executive Director of Washington Filmworks and the Washington State Film Commissioner. Welcome, Amy.
[00:00:16] Amy Lillard: Well, thank you. That's totally me. Amy Lillard from Washington Film Works. Wow.
[00:00:23] Kirk Nordenstrom: Uh, I think I met you in 2006 when I started freelancing at Modern Digital and you were still there.
[00:00:30] Amy Lillard: Wow. We are old.
[00:00:33] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah, that was quite a while
[00:00:34] Amy Lillard: No, I would like to say we're established. Yes.
[00:00:38] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yes.
[00:00:39] Amy Lillard: I mean, gosh, modern digital is a flashback.
[00:00:42] Kirk Nordenstrom: I know.
[00:00:43] Amy Lillard: know. Mm-hmm.
[00:00:44] Kirk Nordenstrom: was, that was a long time ago. That was like my first real post job.
[00:00:48] Amy Lillard: That's a, that was a great experience for me.
[00:00:51] Kirk Nordenstrom: Oh, me too. I learned so
[00:00:54] Amy Lillard: You know, that's what I loved about the FAOs. Mm-hmm. I mean, I walked in and [00:01:00]had like all of this other experiences but was missing post. Mm-hmm. And they were, they talked me through everything I learned, the procedures I learned, like it was great.
[00:01:12] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah, it was. They took, I mean, they took a chance on me. I remember when I was, so I like to joke that my midlife crisis happened when I was 30. Really?
[00:01:21] Amy Lillard: really?
[00:01:22] Kirk Nordenstrom: I decided to go to film school. I got laid off from a job working at an events company in the multimedia part doing, you know, web and print production, graphics production.
[00:01:34] Kirk Nordenstrom: And in April of 2001, they just like, even though our company was making, our department was making money hand over fist. It was insane how much money we were making and they just
[00:01:46] Amy Lillard: shut us down.
[00:01:48] Kirk Nordenstrom: And it was really weird. It was like right before the that big.com bubble
[00:01:53] Amy Lillard: burst. Yeah. How do I not know this about you?
[00:01:57] Amy Lillard: Since we've known each other for so long. [00:02:00] How did I not know this? It
[00:02:01] Kirk Nordenstrom: was a long time ago. It was, I mean, another life entirely.
[00:02:05] Amy Lillard: Here's the hep full. The midlife crisis. It's done. You're done with that? Yeah. Yeah. I
[00:02:11] Kirk Nordenstrom: 30 and I, I was thinking about moving back to, uh, the Bay Area and finishing up my degree in photography.
[00:02:18] Amy Lillard: But, you know,
[00:02:20] Kirk Nordenstrom: I made the best friends of my life here.
[00:02:22] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah.
[00:02:23] Amy Lillard: Yeah.
[00:02:23] Kirk Nordenstrom: And like, I don't wanna move. And then I heard about the 40 week program at the Seattle Film Institute and went, oh, I'll just,
[00:02:30] Amy Lillard: I can
[00:02:30] Kirk Nordenstrom: commit to 40 weeks. Yeah, sure. Thought I'd go into cinematography, wound up in editing, and.
[00:02:36] Amy Lillard: and look at you now.
[00:02:37] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah, I get spend a lot of time at home staring at progress bars,
[00:02:41] Amy Lillard: by the way.
[00:02:41] Amy Lillard: I appreciate that though. 'cause you've been a friend of Filmworks for a long time.
[00:02:46] Kirk Nordenstrom: Well, it's an important organization.
[00:02:48] Amy Lillard: Well, it is. Yeah. I agree.
[00:02:51] Kirk Nordenstrom: especially with, you know, Oregon to the south and Montana to the east and the giant Canadian [00:03:00] behemoth to the north, I mean, right. You're working to get work for people here. It's, it's very important.
[00:03:08] Amy Lillard: No, I know. But um, one of my favorite things is the four eight hour film festival. Let's talk a little bit about that.
[00:03:16] Kirk Nordenstrom: well you've been, excuse me, you've been a huge supporter for a very, very long time.
[00:03:22] Amy Lillard: Love it. And
[00:03:22] Kirk Nordenstrom: And I was really excited 'cause I had, it was you, chalford and Lacey as judges? I think it was in 2015.
[00:03:31] Amy Lillard: Mm-hmm. Here
[00:03:31] Kirk Nordenstrom: had an insane amount of films. That was our, our high water mark. We had 84. And it was really fun having you as part of the judging panel and just your reaction to seeing all those
[00:03:47] Amy Lillard: films
[00:03:49] Kirk Nordenstrom: 'cause you, I mean, you really deal with the, the upper echelon of filmmakers in Washington state. And I remember you commented like, I had no [00:04:00] idea. That there were this many, you know, young undiscovered filmmakers in, in the Seattle, in the Washington area. So, I mean, what if you could elaborate on that, what was your response after seeing these films?
[00:04:19] Amy Lillard: So first and foremost, like.
[00:04:22] Kirk Nordenstrom: like
[00:04:23] Amy Lillard: I now, every single year look at the films and I'm like, what is the next generation of filmmaker coming outta Washington state from the 48 hour film festival? Like it was extraordinary to sit by the way.
[00:04:37] Amy Lillard: And it's like they, those films are made in such a short amount of time and the talent that you're seeing on screen mm-hmm. Is stunning. Right. It's stunning. And so I see it as an opportunity in the work that I do to look into the community that I serve and be like, how do we support the next [00:05:00] generation of filmmaker in Washington state?
[00:05:02] Amy Lillard: And that's really honestly what I love so much about it.
[00:05:05] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah, I, that's a big part of our goal is to foster an environment and a construct, which is the two day filmmaking competition to. Yeah,
[00:05:20] Amy Lillard: you
[00:05:21] Kirk Nordenstrom: would be an incubator, a platform
[00:05:24] Amy Lillard: for
[00:05:24] Kirk Nordenstrom: people to develop their careers.
[00:05:26] Amy Lillard: And
[00:05:27] Kirk Nordenstrom: that's one of my favorite things is when I see someone develop over the years and I love their films, and then they're like, eh, I, I can't do it this year.
[00:05:36] Kirk Nordenstrom: I'm too busy with
[00:05:37] Amy Lillard: work. Which is awesome. Which
[00:05:38] Kirk Nordenstrom: awesome. Which is awesome. It's, it's a bummer, but it's also awesome because I know a couple years, you know, three, four years down the line, they'll be. You know, their souls. Souls will be crushed doing corporate work.
[00:05:53] Amy Lillard: and they're like,
[00:05:53] Kirk Nordenstrom: I need to make a short film, and they'll come back and do the 48.
[00:05:58] Amy Lillard: Well, and the [00:06:00] thing that I noticed when we first started connecting on this front is that you are cultivating this sense of community. Mm-hmm. Right? So even if you are in the corporate job and can't do the 48. You are coming to the screening because you know the people who are involved. Mm-hmm. And it's not, yes, it's a competition and there is a lot of friendly competition going on, but it is about community.
[00:06:25] Amy Lillard: Mm-hmm. And so when I walk into that, you know, well, I remember, remember when we used to walk into rooms? Remember that Kirk, it's coming back.
[00:06:33] Kirk Nordenstrom: We're in a room together right now
[00:06:34] Amy Lillard: I know
[00:06:35] Kirk Nordenstrom: solo bar.
[00:06:36] Amy Lillard: It's one of my favorites in Seattle. I met my wife here. Did you really? Yeah. Didn't know that.
[00:06:41] Amy Lillard: Gosh, I
[00:06:41] Kirk Nordenstrom: right at the corner over there. That's your
[00:06:43] Amy Lillard: Well, that's your lucky spot. Yeah. Maybe I should sit there, find some love. I don't know. Yeah, come every place. Well,
[00:06:50] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah. Well, and you know, Val, I mean he's been a supporter of the 40 eights since this place opened and you know,
[00:06:56] Amy Lillard: every time I come here to Solo bar, I meet someone. [00:07:00] Creative. Yeah.
[00:07:00] Amy Lillard: Like someone I've never met before. Like we were just sitting there and I met Michael,
[00:07:04] Kirk Nordenstrom: yeah.
[00:07:04] Kirk Nordenstrom: Michael, Michael ocha.
[00:07:05] Amy Lillard: Right. There you go.
[00:07:07] Kirk Nordenstrom: he's great.
[00:07:07] Amy Lillard: Yep. He's great. Mm-hmm. He's fantastic. That's why we love Val and the solo bar.
[00:07:10] Kirk Nordenstrom: Exactly. This is, this is a community space that fosters, the arts. This is the theater bar in,
[00:07:18] Amy Lillard: you know.
[00:07:20] Kirk Nordenstrom: I guess we're calling this part of town uptown now.
[00:07:22] Amy Lillard: that what
[00:07:22] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah. It's not lower Queen
[00:07:24] Amy Lillard: anymore. It's just solo bar to me. So I was saying to Val when I walked in tonight that, um, I brought, uh, Juan Moss, the director of Hamlet and Nika Amru, who played Hamlet to the bar last weekend, just, just after I saw the show.
[00:07:39] Amy Lillard: So
[00:07:40] Kirk Nordenstrom: Excellent. Bringing the Spokane people into
[00:07:42] Amy Lillard: Spokane right here in Seattle. But I wanna go back to this sense of community, right? I mean,
[00:07:51] Kirk Nordenstrom: you
[00:07:51] Amy Lillard: walk into, you know, this environment where people have been into this screenings and people have been through this [00:08:00] crazy experience making projects and you can feel it.
[00:08:04] Amy Lillard: Yeah. You can feel like people rooting for each other.
[00:08:07] Kirk Nordenstrom: other. Exactly.
[00:08:08] Amy Lillard: And this friendly competition too, if I'm being honest. Yeah. And like it's this sense of like, we did this individually, but together and I, that is one of the things that I love about the 48.
[00:08:19] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah, that's, it's a pretty universal. Idea internationally in, in all the
[00:08:26] Amy Lillard: cities.
[00:08:27] Amy Lillard: Is it because you've been to a lot of them? Yeah. Mm-hmm.
[00:08:29] Kirk Nordenstrom: And I've been to screenings in LA and I've been to screenings in Portland,
[00:08:36] Amy Lillard: and.
[00:08:37] Kirk Nordenstrom: the, there is a, it's a friendly rivalry at best amongst the filmmakers.
[00:08:46] Kirk Nordenstrom: I find that the, the filmmakers that get the most out of the 48 hour film project. Are the people that do it to have fun and embrace the challenges proposed by, by the event. [00:09:00] We do get some hyper competitive people, and honestly, I don't think they do as well as, as the others because they're not, they're in it for the award
[00:09:15] Amy Lillard: It's the spirit and not the spirit of it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. The spirit of it. It generates better films.
[00:09:19] Kirk Nordenstrom: I think so. Yeah. I think if you embrace the challenges and the community around you, you know, everyone's rooting for your film when it's up on the screen,
[00:09:29] Amy Lillard: everyone's rooting for you. I have a question though. Yeah. So do you ever see like. Teams moving to other teams? Like do they like break up and like go to new teams or like they stay in the same team? Like, what's that like?
[00:09:44] Kirk Nordenstrom: Oh, we, you've seen, I've seen every like, permutation.
[00:09:48] Amy Lillard: That's, that's possible.
[00:09:49] Kirk Nordenstrom: So you'll see an actor who got attached to a team that they didn't gel with one year and then they decide, oh, I'm gonna do my own team. [00:10:00] But they don't have the of professional connections. So we hold events here at solo. And they come and they'll meet a composer and they'll meet a director of photography. They'll meet some other actors and they'll, this individual will put together a team with people they
[00:10:19] Amy Lillard: met
[00:10:20] Kirk Nordenstrom: at one of our social events.
[00:10:22] Amy Lillard: That's what I'm talking about. It's about community and like you're talking about the weekend. Mm-hmm. But it is those things that you do to generate this sense of. Exactly right.
[00:10:34] Amy Lillard: Yeah, that's what I love about it. Okay. So, you know, for a long, long time I produced the fly filmmaking challenge for this. Okay. Okay. So we, you are evil because we gave them like a week to make something. So for those that might not know, the fly filmmaking challenge was, um, similar in spirit, but very different in [00:11:00] execution.
[00:11:00] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah. It was more of a, a showcase than a
[00:11:02] Amy Lillard: competition, a showcase. And it was about showcasing local talent at the Seattle. So, but what was interesting is like we would give them some challenges so that they couldn't make it in advance, but you do it in 48 hours. So having produced that program, I think for 10, 12, something like years, like it is unbelievable when I see on that screen in 48 hours and when they, they don't do anything in advance.
[00:11:28] Amy Lillard: It's incredible.
[00:11:29] Kirk Nordenstrom: They're allowed to put together cast and crew, secure locations and amass props and wardrobe, but no writing
[00:11:40] Amy Lillard: It's the same spirit. It's the same spirit. Right. Well,
[00:11:45] Kirk Nordenstrom: I remember in 2013 you asked me to do a, a photo, a video montage opening for the, for the fly films, and I had a blast doing that,
[00:11:55] Amy Lillard: It's a blast that that program was so awesome.
[00:11:59] Kirk Nordenstrom: I, [00:12:00] it's something that Seattle filmmakers really aspired to be a part of. You know, I, I always wanted to do one, but I was never asked, and
[00:12:09] Amy Lillard: totally not my fault.
[00:12:11] Kirk Nordenstrom: I know, I know, I know, I know, I know the whole process behind it, and I've never, you know, resented that.
[00:12:17] Amy Lillard: but
[00:12:18] Kirk Nordenstrom: I would love to bring it back once c gets back
[00:12:21] Amy Lillard: to
[00:12:23] Kirk Nordenstrom: kind of a normal.
[00:12:24] Amy Lillard: Mm.
[00:12:25] Kirk Nordenstrom: In person or you
[00:12:27] Amy Lillard: hybrid in person event. Well, and I think going back to what you do is everyone is part of the, everyone is part of the environment and, you know, learning and growing and all of those things. And I think, you know, again, so much love for the flywheel making challenge. I, I love
[00:12:44] Kirk Nordenstrom: I love it. I love
[00:12:45] Amy Lillard: loved.
[00:12:46] Amy Lillard: But this is a different thing. Mm-hmm. You know? Yeah. And I think, you know, I, it was interesting when, you know, I. I've, I've been a judge, which is very hard, twice hard for me. Very, very hard. [00:13:00]Um, 'cause there's a lot of good in there. Yeah. And there's a lot of categories, which gives a lot of opportunity. Right?
[00:13:09] Amy Lillard: Yeah. But you are an evil man.
[00:13:13] Kirk Nordenstrom: I'm doing my job. Excellent.
[00:13:15] Amy Lillard: I mean, evil man. And like yeah. It's, it's so hard.
[00:13:21] Kirk Nordenstrom: Well, I appreciate the, the time that you, the time and effort that you put into it. The filmmakers. The
[00:13:27] Amy Lillard: it. The filmmakers appreciated. Yeah.
[00:13:30] Kirk Nordenstrom: Like, uh, for the horror this last year, so we had local comedian, Derek Sheen is one of the judges 'cause he's a huge horror nut and
[00:13:43] Amy Lillard: I didn't know that about him.
[00:13:44] Kirk Nordenstrom: yeah, huge horror
[00:13:45] Amy Lillard: that true? Yeah. I didn't know. Okay. And.
[00:13:49] Kirk Nordenstrom: um, my friend Dima Levin,
[00:13:52] Amy Lillard: Chu mm-hmm. Who
[00:13:52] Kirk Nordenstrom: I met through the 48, and, you know, I went to his wedding and he's one of my best friends and he's, he and his wife are [00:14:00] massive, massive horror
[00:14:01] Amy Lillard: fans.
[00:14:03] Kirk Nordenstrom: And the weird thing is,
[00:14:04] Amy Lillard: is massive horror.
[00:14:05] Amy Lillard: Okay. We're gonna talk about that in a second. Yeah. But go ahead.
[00:14:08] Kirk Nordenstrom: So, for a while, DMA and his wife Hillary, both worked for Funko in the marketing department.
[00:14:16] Kirk Nordenstrom: Edema was the, the video guide. And so they'd go to all the cons all over the world promoting Funko, and they got to meet a bunch of very interesting people. And it was summer of 2020. Deema wasn't working full time for Funko anymore, but he had a, a freelance gig and he said. Hey, do you have some time to help me edit some music videos?
[00:14:42] Kirk Nordenstrom: I'm like, yeah, sure, of course. I'd love to. I love editing music videos. They're fun. And he goes, you ever heard of a band called Anthrax and my jaw just dropped and hit the floor?
[00:14:56] Amy Lillard: Anth like an anthrax.
[00:14:57] Kirk Nordenstrom: anthrax[00:15:00]
[00:15:00] Amy Lillard: Seriously?
[00:15:01] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah. I mean, one of my all time favorite bands. I love
[00:15:03] Amy Lillard: like anthrax.
[00:15:05] Kirk Nordenstrom: and yeah, he got to know Charlie Beante. The drummer for Anthrax, 'cause he's a huge Funko
[00:15:11] Amy Lillard: fanatic.
[00:15:13] Kirk Nordenstrom: and he's like, yeah, they're doing, they're part of this virtual metal festival in, in Germany and they need three videos edited.
[00:15:24] Kirk Nordenstrom: And I'm like, which songs? He's like, well, time
[00:15:27] Amy Lillard: did it matter?
[00:15:28] Kirk Nordenstrom: It didn't
[00:15:29] Amy Lillard: really matter. But
[00:15:31] Kirk Nordenstrom: if I was gonna do more than one, I wanted to cherry pick it, you know, from my teen years. So I got to do madhouse and I am the law. It was just too iconic.
[00:15:42] Amy Lillard: How was that for you?
[00:15:44] Kirk Nordenstrom: I was a kid in a candy
[00:15:46] Amy Lillard: store. I bet you were.
[00:15:47] Kirk Nordenstrom: 'cause you know the first footage I got was Scott Ian and you know, he's an idol of mine and I'm like, oh my God.
[00:15:53] Kirk Nordenstrom: There's Scott Ian on my screen, there's Frank, there's Joey. Oh my God, there's Charlie. Holy shit. This
[00:15:58] Amy Lillard: how many times did you watch the footage [00:16:00] before you actually edit it?
[00:16:02] Kirk Nordenstrom: I got it all synced up.
[00:16:03] Amy Lillard: First that's not,
[00:16:04] Kirk Nordenstrom: that was the first thing, so that I could, and I was just switching through the cameras, like, oh my God, there they are. They're playing madhouse.
[00:16:11] Kirk Nordenstrom: This is amazing. And then I got, so I did those two videos and you know, I watched it as it played at the Fest. And, and then about a month later, Charlie texted me, he's like, Hey, do you have some time? You know, Dina's really busy with something and you know, you, Charlie was working on a.
[00:16:31] Amy Lillard: a,
[00:16:33] Kirk Nordenstrom: A solo album of covers that he was doing over COVID. And so he was doing a cover of U Two's City of Blinding
[00:16:40] Amy Lillard: Lights.
[00:16:41] Amy Lillard: Mm.
[00:16:41] Kirk Nordenstrom: with Mark Osta from Death Angel, and again, another band that, my first mosh pit was at a death angel show
[00:16:50] Amy Lillard: when I was 15
[00:16:53] Kirk Nordenstrom: at the Mountain View Theater in Mountain View, California. And so I'm sitting there like, you know, I'm [00:17:00] watching.
[00:17:00] Amy Lillard: memories by way. Oh yeah. Yeah.
[00:17:03] Kirk Nordenstrom: I saw that mosh pit and just went, you know, I was a swimmer at the time. I was swimming like 10 miles a day, so I was, you know, six foot four with a swimmer's
[00:17:12] Amy Lillard: body.
[00:17:13] Kirk Nordenstrom: I was like, alright,
[00:17:14] Amy Lillard: I
[00:17:15] Kirk Nordenstrom: I'm gonna coach charge around in a circle with all these other jackasses and uh oh, it was fun. And yeah, so I got to edit two members of Anthrax lead singer for Death, angel covering a U2 song.
[00:17:27] Kirk Nordenstrom: It was great.
[00:17:27] Amy Lillard: great. I mean, that's like a dream
[00:17:31] Kirk Nordenstrom: for me. Yeah. It's unbelievable.
[00:17:34] Amy Lillard: Do you like doing the music videos?
[00:17:35] Kirk Nordenstrom: I do. I
[00:17:36] Amy Lillard: I love it.
[00:17:36] Amy Lillard: You do? I I Is it because it's short and sweet?
[00:17:40] Kirk Nordenstrom: No, it's, it's really, I, my favorite thing, I think my favorite thing to edit is bands, performing performers
[00:17:49] Amy Lillard: Oh, so live. Live. Mm-hmm. Um,
[00:17:52] Kirk Nordenstrom: Uh,
[00:17:53] Amy Lillard: which video are you most proud of or maybe not most proud of, but which are you? Like, wow, that's good [00:18:00] work.
[00:18:01] Kirk Nordenstrom: One of my favorites was Val's Band Culture Shock.
[00:18:04] Amy Lillard: Love The Culture
[00:18:05] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah. I can't remember the name of the song. They're all in, you know, certain about Croatian,
[00:18:10] Amy Lillard: Mm-hmm.
[00:18:11] Kirk Nordenstrom: but they did a performance video. It was probably two I 2017, 2018, and they just shot in their rehearsal studio and I have 42 angles to play with. Are you.
[00:18:26] Amy Lillard: Are you kidding me? They
[00:18:27] Kirk Nordenstrom: multiple takes, like of each, 'cause there's six people in the band and
[00:18:32] Amy Lillard: work with editing? That's like painful. It's a whole loss. Pain in the,
[00:18:35] Kirk Nordenstrom: ass. I spent more time setting up the project than editing it,
[00:18:41] Amy Lillard: Mm-hmm.
[00:18:42] Kirk Nordenstrom: but it was so much fun because they're such expressive performers and it's also in an odd time signature.
[00:18:51] Kirk Nordenstrom: So I had to learn the
[00:18:53] Amy Lillard: the time
[00:18:53] Kirk Nordenstrom: signature, which was, which was fun.
[00:18:55] Amy Lillard: But from a technical standpoint, right, so you've got the six [00:19:00] cameras. Mm-hmm. Do you literally watch every camera and then are you like marking it in your mind? Like are you editing in your mind? Like how does that literally work?
[00:19:09] Kirk Nordenstrom: Well, the way I, I did this is I took each, so there were, you know, six of Gino, seven of Chris, the drummer, um, X number for each
[00:19:19] Amy Lillard: member. Mm-hmm.
[00:19:21] Kirk Nordenstrom: and one.
[00:19:23] Amy Lillard: wide shot.
[00:19:25] Kirk Nordenstrom: So I set the wide
[00:19:26] Amy Lillard: down. Thank God for the wide shot. Right, exactly. The pallet
[00:19:29] Kirk Nordenstrom: cleanser. It's the, the Swiss army knife of, of the editor's
[00:19:34] Amy Lillard: to that. Yeah.
[00:19:35] Kirk Nordenstrom: And I grouped each person in the band into a multicam
[00:19:41] Amy Lillard: sequence. Mm-hmm.
[00:19:42] Kirk Nordenstrom: And then I went through and edited each person according to the music. And then I laid all these multi-track sequences on top of each other.
[00:19:52] Kirk Nordenstrom: And then set those up as
[00:19:53] Amy Lillard: of other multi It was, but you know them, right? Yeah. So is that make it easier or harder for you?[00:20:00]
[00:20:01] Kirk Nordenstrom: Oh, way, way, way, way, way easier. Because not only are they
[00:20:06] Amy Lillard: of mine, they're one, you're like, he wouldn't like that on camera.
[00:20:09] Amy Lillard: Like he doesn't wanna be seen like that. Right? Yeah. Um,
[00:20:13] Kirk Nordenstrom: they're also one of my favorite bands, so it's super easy for me.
[00:20:16] Kirk Nordenstrom: I mean, I know the music inside and now, and.
[00:20:19] Amy Lillard: me, we did something together way, way, way long ago where I brought a bunch of people up from LA and like you edited culture shock into it. Do you remember that?
[00:20:29] Kirk Nordenstrom: Oh God,
[00:20:29] Amy Lillard: What? I mean, it was so long ago. Like I was, it was like I was selling the state of Washington.
[00:20:35] Kirk Nordenstrom: I vaguely remember
[00:20:36] Amy Lillard: don't. You do. Right. I know. Because at the end you put the culture shock video. Oh, that's what it was at. At like, we were like, Hey, thank you for coming to Washington State. We sent them a video and we put the culture shock because they went to a culture shock show.
[00:20:49] Amy Lillard: Yes, that is right. Yeah. A bunch of. Super heavy hitter, green lighters from Los
[00:20:57] Kirk Nordenstrom: They, they played it pneumos or
[00:20:59] Amy Lillard: They [00:21:00] did, you're, yep. Yeah. And then at the end of like, they had the best time, like we did all these amazing things and the thing that they remembered most was culture shock. And so of course at the end Kirk has to put the video, I gotta plug my, it's brilliant.
[00:21:11] Amy Lillard: It was brilliant.
[00:21:14] Kirk Nordenstrom: Produced in Seattle.
[00:21:15] Amy Lillard: Produced in Seattle. That's what we do. So yeah,
[00:21:18] Kirk Nordenstrom: it's uh,
[00:21:21] Amy Lillard: That was so long ago.
[00:21:23] Kirk Nordenstrom: I know. Well, it's funny, I was just kinda running over in my head, you know, some questions to ask and topics for us to talk about and one. Thing that I'm
[00:21:39] Amy Lillard: about, what you're about
[00:21:40] Kirk Nordenstrom: no, I'm still super embarrassed by this.
[00:21:43] Amy Lillard: It
[00:21:44] Kirk Nordenstrom: was the first Seattle Film Summit,
[00:21:46] Amy Lillard: Mm-hmm. And
[00:21:48] Kirk Nordenstrom: cannot remember what the panel was, but you and James Keli were on stage.
[00:21:52] Amy Lillard: Oh, that was ages
[00:21:53] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah, and I was just bitter about, so I think I was feeling kind of isolated, like a little social [00:22:00] circle of mine had collapsed or something, and I just felt kind of alone. And I remember asking you some cockamamie, stupid fucking question
[00:22:11] Amy Lillard: about social silos.
[00:22:14] Kirk Nordenstrom: in the Seattle filmmaking community, and you shut me down so fast
[00:22:18] Amy Lillard: it did I,
[00:22:20] Kirk Nordenstrom: Well, 'cause other people were talking about the same thing.
[00:22:22] Kirk Nordenstrom: And it was just like, as it was coming out of my mouth, I was just like, why the fuck am I saying this?
[00:22:27] Amy Lillard: So I saved you by shutting it down, you away. I mean, you,
[00:22:30] Kirk Nordenstrom: you deflected. But it, it was obvious you were like, not this fucking question.
[00:22:35] Amy Lillard: again, dude, I don't even remember this, but I do have a reputation for being very direct. Yeah. Yep. For better or worse. Yeah. And
[00:22:42] Kirk Nordenstrom: I could just, James is rolling his eyes, and seriously, it's coming outta my mouth and I'm
[00:22:47] Amy Lillard: destroying
[00:22:47] Kirk Nordenstrom: why, why am I saying this?
[00:22:50] Amy Lillard: Well, I'm, so, I thought myself, I love it that it's like still in your brain because like I am like, don't, but that was a long time ago. James Kelli was at the city. Yeah. I [00:23:00] mean, that was a long time ago.
[00:23:01] Kirk Nordenstrom: That was a very long time ago, and I've learned
[00:23:03] Amy Lillard: a lot in life. Yeah. Um, learned a lot, but like, I don't remember that at
[00:23:09] Kirk Nordenstrom: Oh, I'm glad
[00:23:09] Amy Lillard: Because,
[00:23:10] Kirk Nordenstrom: was, yeah, it just ate at me
[00:23:12] Amy Lillard: I, I, I'm not sure if I'd love or hate the fact that you said I shut it down.
[00:23:16] Kirk Nordenstrom: well, it wasn't so much that you shut it down, but I You very directly deflected away.
[00:23:22] Kirk Nordenstrom: Like, that's not our
[00:23:23] Amy Lillard: responsibility. We call that the pivot and shift. There
[00:23:26] Kirk Nordenstrom: there you go. It was, it was very effective and I was just sitting there going, God, I'm such a moron.
[00:23:31] Amy Lillard: is why. Um, so I am government adjacent as I like to say, because I, uh, run a legislatively commission something, but I'm a private nonprofit, so yeah, I pivot and shift. I'm direct. It's like I'm not in. All love and respect. Like I don't work for, you know, I get funded by the government, but I don't work in government.
[00:23:53] Amy Lillard: Yeah. Which is why we, I feel like are, we're able to pivot and shift. Yeah.
[00:23:57] Kirk Nordenstrom: yeah. And it was, uh,
[00:23:59] Amy Lillard: yeah. [00:24:00] Um, I mean those were like the formative days though at the Northwest Film Forum, at the Seattle Film Summit, which is like doing amazing things in Washington state.
[00:24:09] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah. No, I mean, Northwest Film Form, I always, it's the incubator for indie film in, in Seattle. I mean, just look at the people that have
[00:24:17] Amy Lillard: I know, graduated. I love it. Quote, although I think you're like discrediting what you're doing in, in Washington and Seattle, like I really feel like all, yes, I give it up for Northwest Film Forum as a place to cultivate talent and like for people to feel community and all that.
[00:24:32] Amy Lillard: I think you're discounting what you do at the 48. I mean, I mean, well, I don't
[00:24:37] Kirk Nordenstrom: to do that,
[00:24:38] Amy Lillard: well, you, I really need to just reiterate that.
[00:24:41] Kirk Nordenstrom: Well, I thank you,
[00:24:42] Amy Lillard: Yeah, but I
[00:24:44] Kirk Nordenstrom: mean, I, Northwest Film Forum serves a different function,
[00:24:47] Amy Lillard: Uh, it has a very different, it has a
[00:24:49] Kirk Nordenstrom: different function and yes, I will. You know, af after my mom died, I had a little bit of money kind of burning a hole [00:25:00] in my pocket, and I basically just spent the year, whenever Northwest Film Forum needed some money. I'm like, I got some money. Here. Go.
[00:25:06] Amy Lillard: I got some money here, go Right. Who's been to those auctions? Everyone, everyone raises the paddle. And I have two. Yeah, I bought a,
[00:25:14] Kirk Nordenstrom: i, I bought a table that year at their, at their annual fundraiser.
[00:25:18] Amy Lillard: Yep.
[00:25:19] Kirk Nordenstrom: Got outbid on the like signed Pearl Jam poster by Mike McCready.
[00:25:24] Amy Lillard: Is that right?
[00:25:25] Kirk Nordenstrom: I
[00:25:25] Amy Lillard: So bad. Why was I not at your table?
[00:25:27] Amy Lillard: Oh, that's right, because I shut you down.
[00:25:30] Kirk Nordenstrom: This is 2018.
[00:25:32] Amy Lillard: I was just kidding.
[00:25:35] Kirk Nordenstrom: trust me. I felt like such an idiot. But you should
[00:25:38] Amy Lillard: You shouldn't feel like an idiot. I like when I get hard questions. Yeah,
[00:25:41] Kirk Nordenstrom: well it was, it was so tangential to the discussion at all and it was like, ah, why am I saying I felt like.
[00:25:47] Amy Lillard: idiot, but clearly I was not at your table in 2018.
[00:25:50] Amy Lillard: At Nor. I'm kidding. I'm
[00:25:51] Kirk Nordenstrom: well, I brought, I brought a bunch of 48
[00:25:53] Amy Lillard: people. That's better.
[00:25:55] Kirk Nordenstrom: Angela and David and the Harvey Brothers,
[00:25:58] Amy Lillard: I love. I [00:26:00] love them.
[00:26:00] Kirk Nordenstrom: How can you not?
[00:26:01] Amy Lillard: am trying to like recruit them into my life.
[00:26:04] Kirk Nordenstrom: They're fantastic people and
[00:26:06] Amy Lillard: by the way. Nobody knows who they are, but they, they, yes.
[00:26:09] Kirk Nordenstrom: Angela DiMarco and uh, David Hogan. They run Mighty Tripod Studios and. They teach classes and they're both fantastic actors and they've done the 48 at times. They were,
[00:26:22] Amy Lillard: they were
[00:26:22] Kirk Nordenstrom: city winner in 2016
[00:26:24] Amy Lillard: and they, yeah. And
[00:26:26] Kirk Nordenstrom: and
[00:26:27] Amy Lillard: they inspire me. I mean, like, I, every time I see them, they're like making a living, being creative.
[00:26:32] Amy Lillard: And then, um, I am, am I allowed to like plug something else? Yeah, of course. So the Shoreline, uh, short Film Festival is happening here in March. And like they have another film there. Like every time they, they just show up in every opportunity to create. Yeah. And sometimes that means making money.
[00:26:53] Amy Lillard: Sometimes that means just being creative. Some, they are making a living, being creative. And I have to tell [00:27:00] you, David is one of the most amazing photographers I have ever seen. And like I, I just love what they do. I love that they're part of the community. And you know, I just think, and I know they've made like 48.
[00:27:14] Amy Lillard: Like films forever. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
[00:27:17] Kirk Nordenstrom: And they like the world's most photogenic dog,
[00:27:21] Amy Lillard: Bruno. Bruno, by the way, Bruno the dog is like famous in Seattle.
[00:27:27] Kirk Nordenstrom: I know, I know. Bruno's and, and then like Megan's cat, snugs,
[00:27:32] Amy Lillard: I don't know what you're talking kidding. By the way. I feel like I see that this is the whole thing, like social media is like the way of the world.
[00:27:38] Amy Lillard: So I gotta get Lily on there. Lily the dog. Oh yeah.
[00:27:41] Kirk Nordenstrom: yeah. Your
[00:27:42] Amy Lillard: Your dogs are cute though. Oh yeah. My dogs are
[00:27:45] Kirk Nordenstrom: The though I think they're trying to kill me
[00:27:47] Amy Lillard: slowly. They do. Slowly over time. That's their like mo.
[00:27:51] Kirk Nordenstrom: Exactly. Well, let's, let's get back to film of Palooza. So, Seattle was the host in 2017, which was
[00:27:59] Amy Lillard: super fun [00:28:00] for me.
[00:28:00] Amy Lillard: Seeing all of those amazing filmmakers here was amazing.
[00:28:03] Kirk Nordenstrom: Well, it's.
[00:28:04] Amy Lillard: it's.
[00:28:06] Kirk Nordenstrom: You know, headquarters runs a really good operation for setting up film of Palooza. This is the 20th anniversary.
[00:28:13] Kirk Nordenstrom: So the, the formula,
[00:28:15] Amy Lillard: the,
[00:28:17] Kirk Nordenstrom: the schedule is, is all pretty much laid
[00:28:19] Amy Lillard: out. We have it mapped out
[00:28:20] Kirk Nordenstrom: and
[00:28:21] Amy Lillard: when
[00:28:23] Kirk Nordenstrom: I was asked to make a proposal for Seattle,
[00:28:25] Amy Lillard: Mm-hmm.
[00:28:28] Kirk Nordenstrom: I think, you know, Kasha and I, we put together a tentative schedule in 90 minutes after I was asked. Because you have to have
[00:28:36] Amy Lillard: an anchor hotel. Mm-hmm.
[00:28:38] Kirk Nordenstrom: your theater,
[00:28:39] Amy Lillard: Mm-hmm.
[00:28:40] Kirk Nordenstrom: and then you gotta have a good bar nearby.
[00:28:41] Kirk Nordenstrom: Those are like the three key
[00:28:43] Amy Lillard: things.
[00:28:45] Kirk Nordenstrom: And I was like, oh, we got, I'm totally blanking on the name of the hotel right there.
[00:28:51] Amy Lillard: Maxwell. The Maxwell. You're welcome. The Pineapple
[00:28:54] Kirk Nordenstrom: you. The pineapple. Yeah.
[00:28:56] Amy Lillard: an amazing hotel.
[00:28:58] Kirk Nordenstrom: It is. It's a very nice hotel and they were [00:29:00] so accommodating.
[00:29:01] Amy Lillard: Love them.
[00:29:01] Kirk Nordenstrom: then we had solo right here.
[00:29:03] Kirk Nordenstrom: And then we got
[00:29:04] Amy Lillard: the up town just
[00:29:05] Kirk Nordenstrom: just five blocks away and ev you know, you don't have
[00:29:09] Amy Lillard: you don't have to go more than five blocks.
[00:29:11] Amy Lillard: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
[00:29:12] Kirk Nordenstrom: was, it was all self-contained and it all
[00:29:14] Amy Lillard: Oh. And then we did the event at the KEXP. Yeah. I don't know why I called it the K at KEX exp, which is an
[00:29:20] Kirk Nordenstrom: had the, that was the opening night mixer and you know, thank you Kate Becker for scoring that for me.
[00:29:30] Kirk Nordenstrom: It was unbelievable. Wow. Because they charge an arm and a leg for that space now, and they charge us almost nothing. And
[00:29:37] Amy Lillard: I know is like, you need to show up. And I was like, yes. Yeah. Yeah. And normally
[00:29:43] Kirk Nordenstrom: at the 48 hour screenings, I don't get tongue tied walking up and talking to pe, you know, talking to the
[00:29:49] Amy Lillard: audience. You never look tongue tied, ever.
[00:29:51] Amy Lillard: And
[00:29:52] Kirk Nordenstrom: it's, it's just, I just kind of go on autopilot after this is my 18th year doing it.
[00:29:57] Amy Lillard: Well that's 'cause you love it too. Exactly. That [00:30:00] comes through in everything you do. Like every time I'm like, Kirk loves this.
[00:30:05] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah. Yeah. And it keeps me sane. I, I think I'd be a psychopathic killer murderer of some sort if I
[00:30:15] Amy Lillard: Well, I mean, I think it's like everyone in like your 48 world, you're like, will you? And we're like, yes, we will. Great.
[00:30:24] Kirk Nordenstrom: well, I got, I got tongue tied when I was introducing you and
[00:30:26] Amy Lillard: Kate because you know us well
[00:30:30] Kirk Nordenstrom: and it was, it was just looking out and seeing 400 people from all over the world in our city.
[00:30:35] Amy Lillard: It's our city. Yeah. They all traveled to Seattle. Yeah. To
[00:30:39] Kirk Nordenstrom: to Film A Palooza. And I was just
[00:30:43] Amy Lillard: like,
[00:30:44] Kirk Nordenstrom: I felt such a, a weight of responsibility.
[00:30:49] Kirk Nordenstrom: It's like I'm responsible for these people having a good time for the next five days.
[00:30:54] Amy Lillard: I
[00:30:54] Kirk Nordenstrom: just got so tongue tied. I was like.
[00:30:55] Amy Lillard: I was like,
[00:30:56] Kirk Nordenstrom: I, I gotta get to Amy. I just kinda [00:31:00] wanted to throw the microphone and it's like, I'm done. I can't do this. This is like, it's so overwhelming. I was terrified and overjoyed at the same time because we had people from the first night of Film of Palooza.
[00:31:12] Kirk Nordenstrom: We were, we came here, or it was the night before. It was the night before we officially opened, and there was a woman here from Durban, South
[00:31:21] Amy Lillard: Mm-hmm. Met her.
[00:31:23] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah, she's never experienced weather below 60 degrees Fahrenheit in her life. Said she's never seen snow and we were just standing right outside on, on the sidewalk the moment she said, I've never seen snow.
[00:31:38] Amy Lillard: Snow. It was like, we produced it. It was like a movie, no snow. Okay.
[00:31:43] Kirk Nordenstrom: And I mean, her jaw just, I mean her eyes went wide and yeah, started snowing for her.
[00:31:48] Amy Lillard: her, but that was the beautiful thing. So.
[00:31:50] Kirk Nordenstrom: So
[00:31:51] Amy Lillard: What you're, so, first of all, Seattle's an international city. Mm-hmm. Right? I feel like sometimes, funny enough, when I first moved to [00:32:00] Seattle, way back in 2003, I used to, in, in this job, like I recruit, like I, I recruit people to come to Washington State and I was like, I live in Seattle.
[00:32:10] Amy Lillard: And they're like, is that in the same area code? Like no shit, like. No, it's not in the same area code as Los Angeles. We are just north of you. And they're like, do I know Seattle? What is, and I was like, Microsoft, um, Amazon
[00:32:26] Kirk Nordenstrom: Sound Garden Nirvana.
[00:32:28] Amy Lillard: you so much for that. Um, all of those things. But what was wonderful about being in, uh, you know, in that environment was these filmmakers were sharing.
[00:32:42] Amy Lillard: Of course their films, but their culture. Exactly right. So I talked to so many people and it wasn't, you know, it wasn't about their film, it was about who they were, what made them tick, how they, how they [00:33:00] function differently in their environments than we do here. And it was like this, it was like, of course, as you already know, like this international community.
[00:33:10] Amy Lillard: A filmmakers, few are storytellers, and that was like the thing that brought 'em all together. But then they were able to tell the stories that were unique to them. Exactly, and that's what I loved and I heard. Ev, like I didn't talk to everyone, but there's so many people there. But they, I got to talk to so many filmmakers.
[00:33:29] Amy Lillard: It was like going to Sundance or going like, you know, in my previous life I went to like all the festivals and it was like going to Cannes and it was like going to Toronto and it was going to like, you know, all of the festivals I used to take things to market with. Mm-hmm. And it's just. Living and breathing in that moment of the culture and the people and the story.
[00:33:51] Kirk Nordenstrom: Well, I don't, I don't know if you know this aspect of, of the 48, but the top 12 to 15 films internationally every [00:34:00] year go to a special screening at can.
[00:34:01] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yes.
[00:34:02] Amy Lillard: Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:34:03] Kirk Nordenstrom: And I've never been, I want to go one of these years.
[00:34:07] Amy Lillard: um, some of the prettiest beaches in the world.
[00:34:10] Kirk Nordenstrom: I've always wanted to go to the south of France. Oh,
[00:34:15] Amy Lillard: That was my minor in French.
[00:34:17] Amy Lillard: It took
[00:34:17] Kirk Nordenstrom: years of it.
[00:34:19] Amy Lillard: how'd that go? It
[00:34:21] Kirk Nordenstrom: great. By the time I was 14, I was functionally, you know, conversationally fluent, but.
[00:34:25] Amy Lillard: mm-hmm.
[00:34:27] Kirk Nordenstrom: I grew up in San Jose, California, so not much of a reason to ever use it.
[00:34:32] Amy Lillard: Nine years though, that's a lot
[00:34:34] Kirk Nordenstrom: I went to a hoity-toity private school, third through eighth
[00:34:37] Amy Lillard: grade, is that right?
[00:34:38] Kirk Nordenstrom: And then took three more years in, in high
[00:34:40] Amy Lillard: school. Mm-hmm. Dude, my son like took his like mandatory, checked the box, Spanish and Eastern. Oh.
[00:34:49] Kirk Nordenstrom: I. I really wish I'd taken Spanish because I could have used it every single day of my life since
[00:34:56] Amy Lillard: it was my minor. Like, what am I doing with that right [00:35:00] now? Yeah.
[00:35:01] Amy Lillard: Mm-hmm. You
[00:35:01] Kirk Nordenstrom: know, my neighbor is from Mexico. I could speak every single day with him in Spanish. We
[00:35:05] Amy Lillard: Mm-hmm. We should take Spanish lessons. That's what we should do in our off time. This is all, all of our free time.
[00:35:13] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah, but so I've, I've never been to Cannes
[00:35:17] Amy Lillard: You should go. You should go. I really want to. Um,
[00:35:21] Kirk Nordenstrom: but I've talked to Sev, you know, we had a Seattle team that went
[00:35:25] Amy Lillard: to Cannes.
[00:35:26] Amy Lillard: Mm-hmm. In
[00:35:27] Kirk Nordenstrom: 2016 or 2015. Wait,
[00:35:30] Amy Lillard: now
[00:35:30] Kirk Nordenstrom: it was our 2014 winners. They went in 2015.
[00:35:33] Amy Lillard: shout 'em out? Do you remember?
[00:35:34] Kirk Nordenstrom: Oh yeah. Uh, Kevin and Philip Harvey from Team Challenge accepted their amazing film. I Cher.
[00:35:40] Kirk Nordenstrom: It was, uh,
[00:35:41] Amy Lillard: One of the
[00:35:42] Kirk Nordenstrom: one of the funniest damn things I've ever seen in my life. It's like Mel Brooks level
[00:35:47] Amy Lillard: comedy and dude, and they live right
[00:35:52] Kirk Nordenstrom: here. Yeah,
[00:35:53] Amy Lillard: They love it.
[00:35:53] Kirk Nordenstrom: like just up the hill literally from us right now, and
[00:35:58] Amy Lillard: this is why I [00:36:00] continue, like I've been the film commissioner for damn Forever, and this is what keeps me going is like I get inspired by the storytellers and the movies and the. Passion. Mm-hmm. Like that is what keeps me going.
[00:36:16] Kirk Nordenstrom: Me too.
[00:36:16] Amy Lillard: I know because you've been doing the 48 for how
[00:36:19] Kirk Nordenstrom: This is my 18th year. I started it here in
[00:36:21] Amy Lillard: Dude, you're longer than me. As the film commissioner
[00:36:24] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah.
[00:36:24] Amy Lillard: that's saying a lot, darling.
[00:36:26] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah. And I can't, I can't see myself not doing this
[00:36:31] Amy Lillard: Wait, I just wanna, I just wanna pause. Okay. 18 fucking years. That's incredible by the way.
[00:36:40] Amy Lillard: And thank you. Nobody ever thanks to you. I'm sure because like,
[00:36:45] Kirk Nordenstrom: I do actually get a
[00:36:47] Amy Lillard: of Oh, that's so nice.
[00:36:48] Kirk Nordenstrom: do get it a lot and it's, I I appreciate it. I really appreciate it. It, it helps
[00:36:54] Amy Lillard: What an amazing
[00:36:56] Kirk Nordenstrom: it gets, it gets stressful. 'cause I have to tell people, Hey, you know, [00:37:00] your film was late or you didn't get the prop in and I have to
[00:37:03] Amy Lillard: can suck it.
[00:37:05] Kirk Nordenstrom: which is, it's the hardest part.
[00:37:08] Amy Lillard: But
[00:37:09] Kirk Nordenstrom: yeah, I do get a lot of things I, I'll get people to say, you know, because of you, because of your event. Um, I now have a, a career
[00:37:20] Amy Lillard: or a real or
[00:37:21] Kirk Nordenstrom: or a real, yeah.
[00:37:22] Amy Lillard: or
[00:37:23] Kirk Nordenstrom: met
[00:37:24] Amy Lillard: a new
[00:37:24] Kirk Nordenstrom: person. Exactly.
[00:37:26] Amy Lillard: Do I am. Wow, that's a long time.
[00:37:30] Kirk Nordenstrom: 18. Yeah. 2005 is the first year. And
[00:37:36] Amy Lillard: God.
[00:37:37] Kirk Nordenstrom: God, James Keble scared the shit out of me that
[00:37:39] Amy Lillard: year. He scares a lot of people. Well,
[00:37:41] Kirk Nordenstrom: it was his first year on the job. And it was my first year doing this thing and I said, Hey, we're gonna be, you know, I wanna get off on the right foot with the city and do things by the book.
[00:37:54] Kirk Nordenstrom: And instead of an email, I didn't know him at all.
[00:37:59] Amy Lillard: Mm-hmm.[00:38:00]
[00:38:00] Kirk Nordenstrom: And I said, yeah, hundreds of filmmakers are gonna flood the streets of Seattle. And he sent me an email saying, I need to have a meeting with you.
[00:38:08] Amy Lillard: period. Yeah.
[00:38:10] Kirk Nordenstrom: And I show up, I, I take the series of elevators up to the,
[00:38:14] Amy Lillard: like the two series up to the 57th floor.
[00:38:18] Kirk Nordenstrom: And I get up there, and this is before Chris, Chris Swenson's even involved. That's how long ago this was. And there's a representative from the fire department,
[00:38:30] Amy Lillard: from
[00:38:30] Kirk Nordenstrom: city and from the police department. And I was just like.
[00:38:33] Amy Lillard: just like.
[00:38:36] Kirk Nordenstrom: Am I gonna get arrested? What, what did I just step into? And I didn't get a lecture or anything. They just, they legitimately wanted to know what I was doing and they asked me a lot of questions.
[00:38:49] Kirk Nordenstrom: Then I said, this is my first year. I don't really know what to expect. And they just said, okay, you know, here's all of our
[00:38:55] Amy Lillard: guidelines.
[00:38:56] Kirk Nordenstrom: We're not gonna issue your team's permits. [00:39:00] But here are the rules that they need to follow. And most of 'em are just common sense,
[00:39:04] Amy Lillard: common sense. A hundred percent. And
[00:39:07] Kirk Nordenstrom: since then we've never had
[00:39:09] Amy Lillard: knock the wood, whatever you're about to say, knock the wood, you mm-hmm. He's knocking his head. For anyone who's listening,
[00:39:17] Kirk Nordenstrom: Um, we haven't had any calls into the police or the fire department and you know, I.
[00:39:24] Amy Lillard: I,
[00:39:25] Kirk Nordenstrom: I get either Chris Wenton or another representative from the city to come in to one of our social events or at the kickoff and talk
[00:39:33] Amy Lillard: about it. I mean, that's our job, right? Yeah. Is to like, make magic happen. Exactly. And you know, James Keli was a magician for sure.
[00:39:42] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yes, he was.
[00:39:42] Amy Lillard: was. We were, you know, he, we worked very closely together as you know.
[00:39:48] Kirk Nordenstrom: I, I, I loved working with James and with Chris in the office. And I remember we had that kind of existential crisis.
[00:39:56] Amy Lillard: There's been many
[00:39:57] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah.
[00:39:57] Kirk Nordenstrom: Well when, well, when,[00:40:00]
[00:40:00] Amy Lillard: when
[00:40:01] Kirk Nordenstrom: James got shit canned.
[00:40:03] Amy Lillard: Oh yeah. He got fired.
[00:40:04] Kirk Nordenstrom: Oh yeah. He got fired. He got fired
[00:40:04] Amy Lillard: Mm-hmm. And, but he owned it. That's what I loved about him. Yeah.
[00:40:08] Kirk Nordenstrom: And I remember stewing over it here.
[00:40:12] Amy Lillard: Mm-hmm. You know, I
[00:40:13] Kirk Nordenstrom: just, I was furious at, at the mayor, at Ed Murray.
[00:40:18] Amy Lillard: And
[00:40:20] Kirk Nordenstrom: I didn't know
[00:40:21] Amy Lillard: Kate.
[00:40:24] Kirk Nordenstrom: I didn't know what to expect. I, I knew she was involved in Vera Project and, and whatnot, but I didn't know her for anything and I was just, I was seething and, and my wife just said, are you gonna stew in your anger?
[00:40:40] Kirk Nordenstrom: Are you gonna fucking do something about it? So we set up those series of like caucus
[00:40:45] Amy Lillard: Yep. And
[00:40:47] Kirk Nordenstrom: I remember Kate showed up to every single one. And the first time she showed up, I think it was at a, a meeting we had at Solo's Sibling Bar [00:41:00] St. J St. John's up on
[00:41:01] Amy Lillard: Hill where I introduced her. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:41:04] Kirk Nordenstrom: And she just won everyone over immediately.
[00:41:07] Amy Lillard: And
[00:41:07] Kirk Nordenstrom: And I, I adore Kate Becker. She was. She had big, big shoes to fill and she had to go and order herself of a bigger set of shoes.
[00:41:21] Amy Lillard: Fair
[00:41:21] Kirk Nordenstrom: She really owned that role and did it, did a great job in it, and
[00:41:27] Amy Lillard: Yeah,
[00:41:27] Kirk Nordenstrom: just her am really glad that, you know, she got that job kind of out of that crappy situation
[00:41:37] Amy Lillard: 'cause
[00:41:38] Kirk Nordenstrom: she's fantastic. Kate's amazing and she's doing great work with the county now.
[00:41:42] Amy Lillard: Yes, and I will, I'm gonna just blame James Keli for my tattoo, and that is a, I'm gonna blame James Keli for my tattoo. And that is the only thing that I will say in the podcast about that.
[00:41:58] Kirk Nordenstrom: Well, [00:42:00] again, uh, film Filma Palooza. I'm getting another tattoo. I showed you the design
[00:42:05] Amy Lillard: did show me the design and. I
[00:42:09] Kirk Nordenstrom: I can't remember if I've talked about the new design, but, so I'm gonna be starting another podcast
[00:42:16] Amy Lillard: That's
[00:42:16] Kirk Nordenstrom: more personally, uh, self-involved, and I'm calling it metal dork from the burbs
[00:42:25] Amy Lillard: 'cause that's what I am. That's a great, that's a great title.
[00:42:29] Kirk Nordenstrom: It's kind of Brian post post's whole shtick, but.
[00:42:33] Amy Lillard: fair.
[00:42:33] Kirk Nordenstrom: You know, we grew up in the same area. He's old, five years older than me, but I'm sure we were at the same death Angel and Testament
[00:42:40] Amy Lillard: hundred percent. You were,
[00:42:41] Kirk Nordenstrom: I'm sure we were at
[00:42:42] Amy Lillard: the a hundred percent
[00:42:43] Kirk Nordenstrom: We probably bashed heads in the, in the pit at some point, I'm
[00:42:46] Amy Lillard: Sure.
[00:42:48] Kirk Nordenstrom: Um, but so this year we're not getting 48 themed tattoos at, at Film of Palooza, at least not Indra and I, [00:43:00] Indra from, uh, arnum Netherlands. She's gonna get a, a Stargate symbol 'cause she's a full on
[00:43:07] Amy Lillard: geek
[00:43:08] Kirk Nordenstrom: And our,
[00:43:10] Amy Lillard: for those that may not know, what is Stargate?
[00:43:13] Kirk Nordenstrom: the show? Stargate SG one. Yeah. She's getting the, the A symbol.
[00:43:18] Amy Lillard: And
[00:43:20] Kirk Nordenstrom: I'm a huge, huge, huge rush fan. And I decided my buddies in Toronto may be an honorary torontonian. And I love the song YYZ,
[00:43:34] Amy Lillard: Which
[00:43:34] Kirk Nordenstrom: opens with Neil Pert tapping out, and I should say y, YZ because
[00:43:40] Amy Lillard: It's Canadian Fair, you
[00:43:41] Kirk Nordenstrom: know, tapping out the, the Morse code to YYZ on his, on his symbol. And so I looked up the Morse code for YY, Z and kind of altered it to my liking. And so I'm gonna get the YY, YZ and [00:44:00] morse code. Probably on my right wrist and it's like my ultimate geek tattoo.
[00:44:07] Amy Lillard: having, it's so I
[00:44:07] Kirk Nordenstrom: my rush tattoo without advertising. I have a rush tattoo. Having
[00:44:11] Amy Lillard: Having seen the visual, it's pretty fucking rap. Just saying like,
[00:44:17] Kirk Nordenstrom: it's
[00:44:18] Amy Lillard: pretty cool.
[00:44:18] Kirk Nordenstrom: Well, I've just, you know, I'm 50 now and I'm just embracing my dorkiness. You know what?
[00:44:23] Amy Lillard: you know what?
[00:44:23] Amy Lillard: I think that's what you do. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Embrace it all. Yeah. Get the tattoo, but like, it's.
[00:44:29] Kirk Nordenstrom: it's
[00:44:30] Amy Lillard: Like it's subversive. It's not like, you know, you're not like putting it out there. It's like fucking cool.
[00:44:37] Kirk Nordenstrom: yeah. Well, I remember when I was coming back, when Kasha and I went to Film of Palooza in Paris in 2018, the first international Olivier pulled out all the
[00:44:49] Amy Lillard: stops I got.
[00:44:50] Amy Lillard: Well I got to
[00:44:51] Kirk Nordenstrom: use my French.
[00:44:52] Amy Lillard: probably safe.
[00:44:53] Kirk Nordenstrom: yeah. We, we, I actually. You know, my reading is much better than my spoke in
[00:44:58] Amy Lillard: French,[00:45:00]
[00:45:00] Kirk Nordenstrom: but I was,
[00:45:01] Amy Lillard: I
[00:45:01] Kirk Nordenstrom: could converse with
[00:45:02] Amy Lillard: people on the street. Mm-hmm. And PE people would
[00:45:05] Kirk Nordenstrom: up to me and ask me things in
[00:45:06] Amy Lillard: French, and I was able to respond,
[00:45:08] Kirk Nordenstrom: blew me
[00:45:08] Amy Lillard: away.
[00:45:10] Kirk Nordenstrom: But when we were coming home, so we flew Paris to Toronto, Toronto to Seattle, and I was so excited.
[00:45:18] Amy Lillard: I
[00:45:18] Kirk Nordenstrom: wanted to get my YY, Z stamp in my
[00:45:22] Amy Lillard: passport.
[00:45:24] Kirk Nordenstrom: Like, oh, the rush gee in me. It's like, oh yes, I'm gonna get my YY, Z stamp. No, I got a TSA stamp.
[00:45:32] Amy Lillard: TSA,
[00:45:34] Kirk Nordenstrom: I was
[00:45:34] Amy Lillard: y yc. Oh,
[00:45:37] Kirk Nordenstrom: Oh, it's like I'm in Toronto. I want my
[00:45:41] Amy Lillard: not. Okay.
[00:45:42] Kirk Nordenstrom: I was so
[00:45:43] Amy Lillard: but you got out like you got into the country and out of the country, so that's good. Exactly.
[00:45:47] Kirk Nordenstrom: So we bought a bunch of coffee. Crisp
[00:45:48] Amy Lillard: at uh, right on. Yeah.
[00:45:50] Kirk Nordenstrom: a bunch of coffee, crisp and made my sister-in-law jealous.
[00:45:53] Amy Lillard: Mm-hmm. As as is what you wanna do when you travel. Exactly.
[00:45:56] Kirk Nordenstrom: exactly. You gotta bring back the local
[00:45:58] Amy Lillard: favorites. [00:46:00] When
[00:46:01] Kirk Nordenstrom: in Canada, you gotta get the coffee
[00:46:02] Amy Lillard: crisp. Do the coffee crisp.
[00:46:05] Kirk Nordenstrom: I love
[00:46:05] Amy Lillard: stuff. Oh well
[00:46:11] Kirk Nordenstrom: have a thing to get to, don't
[00:46:12] Amy Lillard: I do have a thing. It like, this is so fun.
[00:46:16] Kirk Nordenstrom: I, it's, well, it's so, I haven't seen you in person in two years.
[00:46:21] Amy Lillard: know.
[00:46:22] Kirk Nordenstrom: You know, I miss Film day.
[00:46:24] Amy Lillard: Ah, film day. Film day. The annual advocacy day in Olympia, although we did it virtual, which was like, we did a bit of a, we liken it to, at Washington, so at, you know, we're, we have, legislators are trying to do all these things.
[00:46:38] Amy Lillard: It was a bit like being in air traffic control 'cause it was all virtual and it was a shit show. But it was great. Yeah.
[00:46:45] Kirk Nordenstrom: Yeah. Yeah. It was. Oh, I didn't get to talk to any of my three legislators. I was looking forward to it,
[00:46:53] Amy Lillard: but we're, we're feeling good about With a bill Yeah. To increase funding for our program.
[00:46:57] Amy Lillard: So maybe that worked. Maybe you should not talk [00:47:00] to your legislators.
[00:47:01] Kirk Nordenstrom: Well, I'm in district 33 and all three of 'em are,
[00:47:04] Amy Lillard: are support. Super supportive. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:47:06] Kirk Nordenstrom: And they're, they're great. I love living in a district where all three of my representatives are women. It's
[00:47:13] Amy Lillard: fantastic.
[00:47:14] Kirk Nordenstrom: They're, and they're all great. And I've gone to the film day enough times and met with them
[00:47:20] Amy Lillard: so many film days. They know me. So many film days
[00:47:23] Kirk Nordenstrom: and I, the, the last in-person one I went to was in 2019.
[00:47:27] Kirk Nordenstrom: I didn't get to go to 2020 because 2020. Oh
[00:47:30] Amy Lillard: Oh no, he canceled.
[00:47:32] Kirk Nordenstrom: Oh, okay. I don't feel as bad
[00:47:34] Amy Lillard: because No, you did. I mean,
[00:47:36] Kirk Nordenstrom: was going to cancel. I was going to cancel it because that was like a month after we got our, our dog Darby.
[00:47:45] Amy Lillard: Yes, I know Darby.
[00:47:47] Kirk Nordenstrom: Oh, and she was,
[00:47:50] Amy Lillard: she's a bunch of love.
[00:47:51] Kirk Nordenstrom: she's a whole lot of dog.
[00:47:53] Amy Lillard: a whole lot of love. Love a whole lot of
[00:47:56] Kirk Nordenstrom: She is. I mean, she is, oh God, she's so my dog.
[00:47:58] Kirk Nordenstrom: It's ridiculous. [00:48:00] Well, when we got Tony or
[00:48:03] Amy Lillard: So at what I say about my 14-year-old son Yeah, that's what I say about him too. Well,
[00:48:10] Kirk Nordenstrom: we got our, our, our dog Tony's, uh, the, the Pit
[00:48:14] Amy Lillard: Mm-hmm. Jack Russell. Mm-hmm. Yep.
[00:48:17] Kirk Nordenstrom: And, you know, we got him because, you know, our old beloved Roscoe had passed and I needed, you know, I needed a dog. And so we got, we got Tony, and he's just a, I mean, he's a pit bull Jack Russell, you can imagine his personality.
[00:48:33] Kirk Nordenstrom: I mean, point
[00:48:35] Amy Lillard: Yep.
[00:48:36] Kirk Nordenstrom: like a mountain goat.
[00:48:37] Amy Lillard: Yep. And
[00:48:39] Kirk Nordenstrom: about a month after we got him. Kasha and I are in the living room just watching some TV and I see Tony just the way he, his body language is, and the way he is looking at her. And I go, Kasha, he's your dog. And she goes, oh shit.
[00:48:57] Amy Lillard: we
[00:48:58] Kirk Nordenstrom: We got the dog for you. [00:49:00] And I'm like, they pick, you know, they bond with who they bond.
[00:49:04] Kirk Nordenstrom: And I know Tony loves me. I, I
[00:49:07] Amy Lillard: Dude, we all love the dogs, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm.
[00:49:09] Kirk Nordenstrom: growing up all the dogs were my mom's dogs. I mean, she was a whisperer before. That was a thing.
[00:49:15] Amy Lillard: Mm-hmm.
[00:49:15] Kirk Nordenstrom: I mean, dogs would run across the street just to say hi to my mom, literally.
[00:49:21] Amy Lillard: And my brother and I each had feel, they feel you.
[00:49:24] Amy Lillard: Yeah. They feel you.
[00:49:25] Kirk Nordenstrom: And so Kasha was like, ah, shit, we got the dog for you.
[00:49:29] Kirk Nordenstrom: And she's like, you're not upset. I'm like, no. I grew up with my mom. You, you know, my mom.
[00:49:33] Amy Lillard: no.
[00:49:35] Kirk Nordenstrom: And uh. That dog
[00:49:36] Amy Lillard: the dog is the family. It's a family. Yeah. You know, and then
[00:49:40] Kirk Nordenstrom: we got, we got Darby and, oh God, she is so my
[00:49:42] Amy Lillard: dog. She's so cute though.
[00:49:45] Kirk Nordenstrom: so, both of our dogs are
[00:49:47] Amy Lillard: so cute.
[00:49:48] Amy Lillard: Cute.
[00:49:48] Kirk Nordenstrom: cute.
[00:49:49] Amy Lillard: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, they integrate.
[00:49:52] Kirk Nordenstrom: yeah. We decided to go with the stupid dogs, you know, the Jack Russells and the Shepherd Malis, my
[00:49:58] Amy Lillard: My dog Lily is [00:50:00] so pretty.
[00:50:01] Kirk Nordenstrom: Oh, your dog is gorgeous.
[00:50:02] Amy Lillard: Maybe not the smartest. She's so pretty. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Well,
[00:50:09] Kirk Nordenstrom: you know, a, a very happy go lucky breed. Oh,
[00:50:13] Amy Lillard: Oh, she's like a lab mix of some sort. Yeah. I got her in front of the crispy cream in Tacoma, out of a box, so I don't know who had the flashing sucker sign on her forehead, but it was definitely me that day.
[00:50:27] Kirk Nordenstrom: Well, it was funny. So we adopted our cat, Pete, after ASHA's cat passed away. Uh, Lucy, who was an amazing cat,
[00:50:39] Amy Lillard: Like every time you talk about all of your pets, I'm like, oh, I, oh yes. I know, I know. I like, feel like I'm part of your family.
[00:50:45] Kirk Nordenstrom: Well, it was funny because it was only four months after three or four months after Lucy passed Kasha and I were having Thanksgiving dinner by herself at home,
[00:50:58] Amy Lillard: And
[00:50:59] Kirk Nordenstrom: and [00:51:00] she just looks across the table and goes, want Kitty?
[00:51:03] Amy Lillard: You can't really say no to
[00:51:05] Kirk Nordenstrom: No, no. And I'm like, are you sure? Are you sure? Because it was pretty, you know, she'd had Lucy for a long time was very, very attached,
[00:51:12] Amy Lillard: That is a directive. It's not a question. She said, want
[00:51:14] Kirk Nordenstrom: Kitty? So we went
[00:51:15] Amy Lillard: to Kitty period, not question.
[00:51:17] Kirk Nordenstrom: Question. Yeah. So we went to the Humane Society on Black Friday and we wanted to get a black cat.
[00:51:22] Kirk Nordenstrom: 'cause they're a, they're free and statistically less adoptable because people are superstitious and stupid. Right?
[00:51:28] Amy Lillard: right? I wouldn't even think of that. But yes, of course. They're black, white,
[00:51:30] Kirk Nordenstrom: cats are free. And we met some cats that we liked, but then we went into the shy room and there was this white and gray cat that just looked so sad. So I spent some time saying hi to him and I'm like, gosh, come in here.
[00:51:44] Kirk Nordenstrom: Come in here. And
[00:51:46] Amy Lillard: I'm like, this guy. So the cat is yours? Is the cat? Yours? Yeah. And then,
[00:51:51] Kirk Nordenstrom: you know, he turned around and looked at us and he reached out and touched my finger and we're like, oh, that's it. We're taking him. And that was Pete. And
[00:51:59] Amy Lillard: they pick [00:52:00] you Exactly.
[00:52:00] Amy Lillard: No matter what they pick you. Yeah.
[00:52:02] Kirk Nordenstrom: And then Roscoe came into our life a couple of months later.
[00:52:07] Amy Lillard: So much love in that house.
[00:52:08] Kirk Nordenstrom: And then the next Thanksgiving, uh, we had some people, some friends over for Thanksgiving dinner and I had a new smoker and I
[00:52:16] Amy Lillard: bumped all the Turkey. And,
[00:52:18] Kirk Nordenstrom: uh, after the friends left, Kasha and I are having some drinks and we got space and I turned to Kasha and go, want Kitty?
[00:52:28] Amy Lillard: So
[00:52:29] Kirk Nordenstrom: we went to the Humane Society
[00:52:32] Amy Lillard: on Black Friday
[00:52:34] Kirk Nordenstrom: and we were, we were gonna get a
[00:52:35] Amy Lillard: black cat or no cat. Oh.
[00:52:38] Kirk Nordenstrom: Um, that was, that was the condition. So we meet this black cat that we like. He was a year old and
[00:52:46] Amy Lillard: and
[00:52:46] Kirk Nordenstrom: a friend of ours who used to work in the kitchen here at Solo was
[00:52:49] Amy Lillard: also there.
[00:52:49] Kirk Nordenstrom: there looking
[00:52:50] Amy Lillard: for a cat. Mm-hmm. And
[00:52:53] Kirk Nordenstrom: the woman there said. Oh, um, there's an issue.
[00:52:58] Amy Lillard: I'm like,
[00:52:59] Kirk Nordenstrom: [00:53:00] crap, Sloane got, Sloane got
[00:53:01] Amy Lillard: this cat before us.
[00:53:05] Kirk Nordenstrom: That wasn't the case.
[00:53:08] Amy Lillard: She's like, well,
[00:53:10] Kirk Nordenstrom: this guy's in a bonded pair with one of his litter mates.
[00:53:13] Amy Lillard: Oh, dear. And like,
[00:53:15] Kirk Nordenstrom: oh, well where's that cat?
[00:53:17] Amy Lillard: They're
[00:53:18] Kirk Nordenstrom: Then point under the cat tree.
[00:53:20] Amy Lillard: I'm sorry, who had this flashing sucker sign on their
[00:53:23] Kirk Nordenstrom: Oh yeah.
[00:53:24] Amy Lillard: Uhhuh. Yeah. Yep.
[00:53:25] Kirk Nordenstrom: so we just looked down and went that we'll take 'em.
[00:53:27] Amy Lillard: Yeah. They win. They win. The cats win. The Humane Society. You win. Yeah. Everyone won. Yeah. So we got a black cat
[00:53:35] Kirk Nordenstrom: and bonus
[00:53:36] Amy Lillard: cat and bonus cat. Yeah. It's a plus
[00:53:38] Kirk Nordenstrom: And they were integrated into the entire household in less than 24 hours.
[00:53:43] Amy Lillard: Beautiful. Beautiful. They just wanted to come out. It's a house of love. Yeah. And pizza.
[00:53:48] Kirk Nordenstrom: it's not, yes. Yeah. You have to come over
[00:53:50] Amy Lillard: know, I know. I'm inviting myself again. Yes. Pizza, stone oven pizza.
[00:53:57] Kirk Nordenstrom: built by my engineer of a wife.[00:54:00]
[00:54:00] Amy Lillard: Although you said you were the cook at the
[00:54:02] Kirk Nordenstrom: am. She's the builder. I'm the baker.
[00:54:04] Amy Lillard: so there you go. Yeah. It's a perfect match. Yeah. I'm gonna go sit at the end of the bar to find my perfect match. Alright. That's what you said at the beginning of the podcast. I'm gonna do it Val. Telling Val that. You know, the owner of the solo bar, I'm gonna sit at the end of the bar until I find my perfect match.
[00:54:19] Amy Lillard: Alright,
[00:54:20] Kirk Nordenstrom: k. And I'll come here and introduce you to all the people we
[00:54:23] Amy Lillard: Will you bring Pete?
[00:54:24] Kirk Nordenstrom: Pete. Oh, he would freak out. He's the shy
[00:54:27] Amy Lillard: one. Oh,
[00:54:27] Kirk Nordenstrom: Sean and Guss would come and hang out. They're
[00:54:31] Amy Lillard: would be like, no, no cats, but lots of love. But yes,
[00:54:34] Kirk Nordenstrom: have been in here before.
[00:54:36] Amy Lillard: yeah,
[00:54:36] Kirk Nordenstrom: Roscoe's been in
[00:54:37] Amy Lillard: Lily would be the same way though. She'd be like, not my thing.
[00:54:41] Kirk Nordenstrom: It's, we don't wanna get Val in trouble with the, the health department. No.
[00:54:45] Amy Lillard: No, we don't because we love Val and the solo bar. Um, but I do, before we sign off, okay. Just want to reiterate as the Washington State Film Commissioner, how much the 48 means to us [00:55:00] in terms of what it does for our community, what it does for the filmmakers, and what it does for us to really think about what is the future of filmmaking in Washington.
[00:55:10] Amy Lillard: And you do that. Chris does that like, but it means a lot to us as like the purveyor of like what is next in Washington. And I feel passionately about it and I love watching every single film and I look forward to finding out what's next for you. I won't watch the horror. I'm not a big fan of
[00:55:32] Kirk Nordenstrom: That's, that's cool.
[00:55:33] Amy Lillard: Lots of love.
[00:55:34] Kirk Nordenstrom: of them are comedies, but
[00:55:35] Amy Lillard: I know, but bloody can't. Yeah. But.
[00:55:38] Kirk Nordenstrom: But
[00:55:39] Amy Lillard: Thank you for what you do for 18 years. 18
[00:55:43] Kirk Nordenstrom: Well, I'm, I'm crossing my fingers because as you know, I'm a, a huge fan of yours and what you do at Washington Filmwork
[00:55:52] Amy Lillard: 18 years. Yeah. You trump me my 15 Just saying that.
[00:55:56] Kirk Nordenstrom: you do it full-time.
[00:55:57] Kirk Nordenstrom: This is, this is a part-time
[00:55:59] Amy Lillard: it's love. Well, [00:56:00] it's love for both of us. Yeah. Which is what it's all about.
[00:56:03] Kirk Nordenstrom: you know, I'm crossing my fingers. We get it this year. You have put so much of your time, energy, and self into it. I'm
[00:56:14] Amy Lillard: I'm just putting one, by the way, if that happens, we're gonna sit at the bar together and celebrate.
[00:56:19] Kirk Nordenstrom: Oh, you know it here at
[00:56:20] Amy Lillard: at the solo
[00:56:21] Kirk Nordenstrom: because it's
[00:56:23] Amy Lillard: a long time
[00:56:23] Kirk Nordenstrom: It's a long time coming
[00:56:25] Amy Lillard: long time coming.
[00:56:26] Kirk Nordenstrom: we, god dammit, we deserve it.
[00:56:28] Amy Lillard: Amen.
[00:56:29] Kirk Nordenstrom: We deserve it. We, there's, I am sick of watching friends move to Oregon, to la to New York, to Atlanta. I'm sick of losing friends to other cities.
[00:56:45] Amy Lillard: with you
[00:56:45] Kirk Nordenstrom: because I'm, I'm, I'm here.
[00:56:47] Amy Lillard: I'm here too. I'm here too, so let's keep our friends here.
[00:56:51] Kirk Nordenstrom: Alright. Yeah. I'm sick of seeing 'em go.
[00:56:53] Amy Lillard: Me too. Maybe
[00:56:54] Kirk Nordenstrom: Maybe we can get some of them
[00:56:55] Amy Lillard: back.
[00:56:56] Kirk Nordenstrom: We, yeah.
[00:56:56] Amy Lillard: yeah. If we get what we're at aiming for, we will for sure.[00:57:00]
[00:57:00] Kirk Nordenstrom: Well, Amy, thank you so much.
[00:57:02] Amy Lillard: Oh my gosh, thank you.
[00:57:03] Kirk Nordenstrom: It's so good to see you in person again. And
[00:57:05] Amy Lillard: I know. It's so good to see
[00:57:07] Kirk Nordenstrom: share a drink and shoot the shit.
[00:57:09] Amy Lillard: Share a drink and shoot the shed. And 18 years, there you go. All right. That's where we're ending it, right there. Thank you for all you do.
[00:57:17] Kirk Nordenstrom: Oh, you're quite welcome.
[00:57:18] Kirk Nordenstrom: And thank you for everything you do.
[00:57:20] Amy Lillard: All right.